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"Oi! I'm going to grab some of the rations for us. Keep watch." Terra called, her monkey tail flicking behind her boredly as she turned to head into the cave. "And don't fuckin' start with the whole 'we have to keep watch' nonsense. This close to HB and the big lady, we aren't a priority for anybody. No one is out there, so relax and lemme get some food."
"Fine, fine… Lazy gods damn rookies, I tell ya." Her stockier companion sighed, sounding as bored and lazy as she did about the whole 'guarding' schtick in spite of his words.
"Oh, please, you're as lazy about this as I am. I didn't sign up to guard some ass backwards cave a mile out from base…" She groaned, the sound carrying to her sensitive ears even through the birdsong overhead.
"Suck it up." Two large boulders had, years ago, been shifted to obfuscate most of the entrance and hide the camp inside, and the man leaned back on one of those comfortably. "Bring me back some of the pork stock, then. If any is left, I mean. Dust knows no one pays us any attention out here..."
'Fair enough.' Ilia mused quietly, crouched low in front of a tree across the few feet of bare earth outside the cave's entrance. Skin colored a mix of spottles greens, browns and berry blues to match the bush she was in, she watched the duo carefully. 'Sucks to be you… No idea what you're guarding.'
Even the people who had stationed them there didn't know what they were guarding though, to be fair. How could they? Even if the room wasn't sealed off and even if they'd ever cared enough to tunnel through the rock and wall there to get at it, they'd have never guessed the purpose for the room. On all fours, she slinked back and away, hiding behind the tree before she rose higher and crawled off into the woods like an ape.
She didn't go far, before she stood and took a breath, drawing her whip from behind her back and flicking it out into blade form. With it, she sett to cutting herself. Shallow wounds placed where they wouldn't hinder her, but would bleed alot, all along her arms, her exposed thighs, and one along the side of her head.
It was an exercise of will, and going against everything you'd been taught, to force your Aura down when a blade came near but she did it regardless with a pinched expression and a hiss of pain. With her hands and fingers, she poked at the wounds and pressed them, increasing the bleeding and running her fingers from the cuts and down to make it look like she'd been cut an hour past.
And so, a few minutes later, she staggered into the small clearing around the cave entrance and collapsed theatrically, crying out, "H-Help! Please…"
Four Faunus, one woman and three men and all in varying sizes, came rushing out of the cave with rifles in their hands. The three men moved past her and to the tree line, watching the way she'd come carefully for anything out of the ordinary, and the woman knelt in front of her. Most lacked their masks, surprised by her sudden appearance and undisciplined, and to her relief she didn't recognize any of them.
Which was good, since she doubted she could do what she planned if she had.
"Who-"
"M-My name is Ilia." She grunted, accepting an offered skin of water theatrically and taking a long drink of it. Handing it back, she went on, explaining in as panicked a voice as she could muster, "My patrol was hit by Grimm, a few miles… North, I think. Everyone was wiped out, I didn't know what to do so I-I ran."
"You don't know for sure?" The woman asked, grabbing an arm and then holding her hands up in surrender when she yanked away from her. Too afraid, at least the woman would assume, to be touched right now. "I'm sorry, I just want to check your wounds, Ilia. You're bleeding a lot…"
"I-I can deal with them on my own." She argued hotly, pointing roughly the way she'd come, finger waving towards the Fang base as well, "The Grimm were headed that way, though! Y-You have to go and stop them, before they get to base."
"Wait, you know where the base is but not which way you-"
She was moving before the man could finish his question and turn to her, her whip lashing out and snaring around his throat. Serrated blades ripped it open in the same moment as she rose, her knee landing in the woman's throat and sending her sprawling in the soft dirt and choking. The faster of the two men turned and raised her rifle at her but the whip crackled as it lashed out, punching through his throat and flicking to the side to cut through his partner's as well. The man dodged back, clutching at a shallow cut, and lost his rifle as he fell. The second crack of her bladed whip cut through fingers and the throat behind it, and she sighed as the world went quiet.
"I'm sorry for this, but I have a job to do." She murmured for the choking woman, collapsing the weapon into its needle-like form and punching it down towards the cleft between her breasts. Her hands came between the weapon and its target, but she simply pierced through them and into her heart regardless.
Not for the first time, she stepped over the still warm bodies and towards the cave entrance. Inside, it was rather barren, with a fire to the side of the entryway, shelves along one side of the smooth wall inside, and two stacked cots like bunk beds against the flat wall at the back. In the center of that wall, between the two beds, was a small hole the size of her thumb that she remembered looking through months or years ago. Whip crackling, she stepped towards it and lashed out, the tip piercing the stone around easily enough between the two beds so she could peer through more easily than before.
Inside, a wide and tall room with iron braziers circling it rested, empty and mostly pristine. Emphasis on the mostly, of course, given the rocks piled atop the flat stone. Probably fallen from the roof above, some of them rounded and natural and others with flat faces that spoke of the shrine that had been built before.
Stealing the blankets off the beds she stepped outside and moved the bodies to the side of the cave and then covered them. Finally, she sat down and dug through the crates of supplies around the beds until she found bandages to start cleaning herself up and, while she did that, dialed a number on her Scroll.
"Overlord," She murmured, "I cleared the cave out. It's safe to approach."
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"W-Where is everyone else?" Ilia asked when he arrived alone, the woman sitting on top of one of the two boulders that flanked the cave's entrance.
"Forming a perimeter around the Portal-Shrine while you and I excavate it and I summon my army." He answered simply, waving for her to follow him and eyeing the pink lines along her arms and legs. Wounds recently closed by Aura, he could tell. And in places, she sported bandages still, some wrapped around her upper arm and a pasted-bandage on the side of her head. "What happened to you? Did they put up that good a fight?"
"What?"
"You have bandages on, so I'm assuming that they fought back well enough to hurt you." He answered simply, gesturing with the head of his axe at her head and the little sticky-bandage there. She flinched, of course, watching the blade hover close before he pulled it back and away and stepped by her and into the cave. She followed him in and he grunted a simple "Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine, yeah." She nodded, bouncing around him to drag the beds away from the back wall and pointing at it. "Break this open, and the ruins I talked about will be back there. I already looked, and saw the stone and braziers."
"Next time you go into a fight, be more careful. And if a fight is too risky for you, call me and let me fight it for you." He grunted, laying his axe on the top bunk of one of the beds and sliding it further away. Steel scraped on stone for a moment as he moved it, setting it next to the embered fire and thanking Evil for the Darksight enchantment Gnarl had put on his helmet.
"B-But it wasn't that bad." Even as dark as it was, he could still see. And so when the girl flushed for fear and shrank under his gaze, he could see it as plain as day. "I did this. The cuts, I mean. There wasn't a real fight. Not really."
"You cut yourself?"
"Mhm. Old Fang trick, goes all the way back to the Revolution way back when." The girl seemed to relax as she spoke. Like talking about the old past relaxed her, or maybe just distracted her. A history fan, he supposed gently and quietly. "You cut yourself up a bit, all superficial ones that'll bleed bad enough to look really bad, and ask for help. The soldiers drop their guard, and you… Do your job."
"Kill them you mean."
"Yeah…"
"Good work, Ilia." He praised, hesitating a moment at the sad look that flitted across her face, scales tinting an obvious blue color. Something was dragging her mood down, and he had a guess as to the four reasons why. And while he wanted to just move on, he knew better than to take someone distracted into a fight. "Ilia, you did well. And you did what you had to do for a better endpoint. Don't let it drag you down."
"All she wanted was to help me, and I stabbed her for it." Ilia countered, looking up at him and grimacing, her brow furrowed and head hanging low. "What kind of better endpoint comes from that?"
"One Blake wants, I would say, judging from the fact she's joining us in dealing with all of this. And she knows what joining me means." She flinched at the low blow, and he knew it was one when he said it. But it had the desired effect, the hopelessly smitten girl nodding gently at the words.
How Blake inspired this kind of loyalty, he couldn't help but wonder… Probably the so-called Bellabooty, as he'd heard from Ruby that Yang liked to call it. He could see why people would like it, even as committed to Ruby as he was. Committed didn't mean blind, as his dad had said once upon a time, just before his mom had smacked him upside the head with a spatula.
Women and kitchenware based assaults seemed to run in his family…
"We're almost done with this, Ilia." He finally said after a long and tense quiet moment between the two. "One last big push, one more scrap, and the White Fang will be dealt with. What's left will be handed to you and Blake, if we keep any of it, and I can help build something better from the ashes."
"I know…"
"Then help me get justice for what was done, so we can all go home." He asked, trying his hardest to motivate her without using fear for it.
They were finally out of that place, and Ruby would kill him if he put Ilia back into the state she'd been in before, if only because Blake would be angry. Or, well, she'd not kill him per se… But she'd pout something fierce, and that wasn't something he knew how to really handle all that well.
"I know, I just… I don't know. Let's just get this over with already." She sighed, then, and he saw what Blake probably did for the briefest of moments, from the way her face fell and her eyes dimmed.
Someone kind and gentle, forced into something she had no business being involved in. And he was shocked by how instinctive it was to want to protect that, somehow. It wasn't going to stop him sending her into a fight, of course, but… There was the itch nonetheless, albeit one he knew he wouldn't get to scratch.
"I break the stone, you push it to the sides of the cave for me. Pile it up, or whatever, I just need it opened up enough for my Minions and spider-riders to come through." He finally ordered, when he had nothing else he could think to say in answer.
She nodded and he turned, stepping into a heavy glow from his Gauntlet that cracked the ancient stone easily. He brought it back and slammed the hardened tips forward again, piercing the stone easily and then using a Mana Burst to shatter a large section of it free. Ilia caught the piece surprisingly easily given it was nearly as wide as she was, though it was only half as thick, and turned to haul it away.
On and on, the work went, in relative silence aside from steel striking stone.
It didn't take long before they broke through and into the Portal room itself, pushing the piles of broken stone to either side of the cave and ignoring the equipment in the way. Inside, they did similar to the rock and dirt on the Portal-Stone, cracking what they couldn't move with magic and piling it up beside the braziers. Then they gathered up some of the wood the Fang had kept for their fire and used it to light the braziers closest to the exit, and Jaune stood atop the Portal-Stone.
"And now," he smiled, raising his Gauntlet, "to summon an army, and get to the fun part of today." At his words, the Portal-Stone flared to life and, to Ilia, he said, "Tell everyone to convene here at the cave. We'll move out as soon as enough of my army is through and-"
"About that, M'lord." Gnarl's voice spoke as he emerged from the crackling power, half a dozen Guard-Minions flanking to either side of him. "The old twat himself said he got a message out from Irondick. Apparently, they're already caught out and in a fight. So the sneaky stabby poke part of your little get-together is… A bit past, unfortunately."
"Patrols, probably." Ilia said quietly, her own hand hovering over her whip. "They'll need help, or more will be on them."
"We stay with Gnarl and bring my forces through." He ordered with a low growl, plucking his axe from the bed as he stormed towards the cave's exit. Ilia made to argue and he simply held a hand up, adding, "Go out there, and collect our people, Ilia. Get back here as fast as you can, we're moving on as soon as I have the numbers."
The first shots of the battle had been fired, it seemed.
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"It was nothing more than a few patrolling units. Trios, mostly, from what I understand." Ironwood explained half and hour later, when their teams had all gathered outside the cave. "We handled it easily."
"Good." A spider, laden with hanging metal plates and Minions clutching their spines, pushed out of the cave and kicked one of the overgrown boulders to the side as it did. "I figured you'd all be fine, really."
"I appreciate your confidence…" Ironwood watched it with a grimace and added, "Your… Army is getting ready for the attack, and I was just about to order the students to scatter into the woods and take up a perimeter. But I felt you would want to be asked, first."
"Why?"
"It's your attack, and for the most part, your forces." The man answered simply, standing with him by a tree several yards from the cave, the two of them watching his Minions impatiently. Across from them, the Humans and Faunus of their group stood in an anxious cluster, waiting on their word and chatting amongst themselves, and Ironwood spoke, "Give the order, Overlord. We have a job to do."
"Can I ask you a question, General?" The man hummed his surprise and gave him a look, but nodded after a moment regardless. Ruby spotted him looking her way and waved excitedly, bouncing up and down and grinning ear to ear, and he returned the gesture with a smaller wave. Neo, standing behind the little Rose with Roman beside her, saw the gesture and grinned, signing something for Roman to translate that had Ruby spluttering and red.
A wonderful demonstration of what was making him nervous... "Is it normal to be nervous like this? I've been in plenty of fights, but I'm… Nervous."
"Ah, that kind of nervousness. I see the problem here then, Jaune." The older man snorted and shook his head wryly, crossing his arms over his chest and sighing. "Normally, I would get into it more. But right now, we have a battle to get underway, and every moment we spend waiting is just giving them time."
"That's why I asked while my Minions were gathering in mass." He pointed out, gesturing at the near a hundred of the lightly armored creatures milling about in the clearing, and their half-dozen giant spiders as well.
"Yes, but the preparations include our Hunter-trainees getting into place to guard our rear, and our Hunters securing the area between to keep Fang patrols hitting either line's back. Which you're delaying." He could only grimace at that and Ironwood nodded with a small, pleased smile on his face. Taking the silence for an opportunity, the general answered simply, "Being afraid to lose your people is natural. Particularly when you're involved with them, which is why militaries tend to frown on that."
"But...?"
"But you have to do what you have to do regardless of that fear. And the best recourse to protect people you put in harm's way is to plan thoroughly, and act on it confidently." The general answered simply. "You've done the planning, so act. And trust the people under you to stand on their own two feet."
"That easy, huh?"
"Not on your life, Overlord." The general smiled bitterly and shrugged, though, and added. "But it's how being in command works, sad to say. So strap on your boots and go fuck the Beowolf."
"... Run that by me again?"
"Old military saying, that's all." He shrugged noncommittally, waving a hand towards the Minions and warriors both, "Just means to step up and do your job, even if it scares the snow off your shoulders."
"I hate that you explained a saying with another saying…" Jaune sighed, but he pushed off the tree regardless and bellowed to his Minions, "Greens! I want you headed to the Fang base. Infiltrate it, hide, and wait until the attack starts. Once it does, cut down anyone isolated or any groups small enough, and undermine their defences. Iilia, show them the way and the pull back."
"For the Overlord!" The dozens of Green creatures crowed, wielding forged iron daggers, claws and dressed in dark, splotchy leather clothing. Ilia said something as well, of course, but it was drowned out in the cheer of the assembled infiltrators and then the creatures were gone with her, headed into the forest.
"Juniper, Ruby, you guys get moving and spread out through the forest. Keep the Grimm back and away from us. Qrow is in charge out there." He ordered, the man grimacing but nodding as the seven children turned to leave with the older man in tow. "Browns and Spider-Riders, you're going to be assaulting the front of the base in mass. Ironwood and Winter Schnee will issue you your formations and orders, so follow them."
"Tai, Roman and Neo you're with them too." The trio looked mildly chagrined to be put together, exchanging wary - or, well, excited and blood thirsty in Neo's case but she was the exception - between each other. "Ironwood, I trust you to handle the specifics. If you don't mind?"
"I don't. Winter and I will join in that part of the assault as well, once the enemy is… Softened up sufficiently." The man answered, surprised for a moment to be so blatantly handed power but seeming to roll with it regardless. "I recommend you and Ozpin come in behind us. We'll direct you to the command room, or whatever they have similar, and let you strike down their leader."
"Good idea as far as I'm concerned." It would cement him as the winner here in a very spectacular, vindictive and blatant way. All words he loved being used to describe whatever he did, really. It also meant his relatively squishy self and Ozpin, who was valuable in a different way, would be mostly at the rear and safe. "You hear the tin man. Move out, Minions! Your Overlord commands you!"
Spiders hissed, Minions crowed and, within moments, the assembled Huntsman were moving. All his 'I's dotted, all his 'T's crossed, and his axe sharpened enough to cleave through stone - He'd tried it! For science! - and he was marching on the enemy's gate at gloriously evil last.
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"That the place! Can smell scent and track Green brothers already inside. They hide, yes-yes, and we attack do they can sneak-stab!" One of the squat, nearly innumerable and shoddily armed and armored Browns reported when he asked.
"You're sure about that?" Tai asked, sitting across a think creek and behind a small hill's crest trees had long grown along.
Across a small open expanse, with a thin creek bubbling weakly between them and the trees a few yards away, a mountain climbed into the sky. One of a range that expanded to either side and, he knew from his studies, would eventually connect with other ranges and form the mountains Mistral used as natural barriers to the Grimm. And directly across from them, completely unmarked like he'd been told it would be, was a cave entrance about big enough for a car to get in.
But nothing else existed to tell it apart…
"Are you sure?" He asked cautiously, turning to see the Minion and, kneeling behind it, an impatient Winter Schnee, kneeling in the soft mud with her wrist resting on her knee and her saber hanging from it comfortably. "You've deal with the Fang before, Winter. What do you think?"
"It's the kind of setup they'd look for, and they tracked their scent. Ilia, I think her name was?" The soldier turned to him, waiting for a response, and he nodded to it so she continued in her same quiet, bored voice. "Right then. Ilia led the green creatures here, and the little creature with you said that it followed their scent here."
The blonde just shrugged and rose, standing tall and proud in spite of the warning Winter hissed at his back. When he stepped into the clearing, the hissed warning turned to hisse dinsults and comparisons to Qrow, but he ignored her as he moved towards the entrance. Stepping through he flinched as a saber slammed into his chest and sparked off his Aura, acting on instinctive impulse and lashing out in a devastating blow that shattered the waif of a woman's mask and sent her reeling back the way she'd come.
"They're in here!" He called cheerily as another duo, these two men armed with the same red swords and wearing White Fang regalia produly, moved towards him. Beneath him the woman groaned and tried to roll over and rise, but a kick that sent her slamming into the wall sent her into unconsciousness as the man fell into an easy boxing stance and smile. "Heads up, boys, but I'm a Hunter."
"A Human is a Human." The larger man, two wolf's ears flicking on his head, growled as he closed with the blonde.
The Faunus man ignore him and lunged with the curved blade, aiming the point for his throat, and Tai sighed. With his left arm, he batted aside the weapon and stepped into his guard and then slamming a punch into his sternum hard enough to crack bone and drive the man back. A hook sent the wounded man into unconsciousness, slumped against the wall, as the Minions washed into the cave like a tidal wave of brown and iron.
The other guard shrieked and backpedaled, turning to run into the cave and cry for help, but a quartet of the Minions were on him inside four steps. Clubs, shivs, claws and even teeth descended on him as he fell and the Browns washed towards the heavy brick wall and thick wooden door at the back of the wide cave.
A guard, hearing the fighting, opened it as he reached it and Tai's fist caught his jaw before he could react. Booting the unconscious Grunt through the door, he bobbed to the side to evade a spear charging towards him and caught the weapon under his arm. The Faunus woman, one of her antlers broken off, tried to yank it back and he only smiled.
"Sorry, Darlin'." He apologized, yanking to the side and hurling her against the wall hard enough to shatter her shoulder. The Minions yanked the door open then and saw her, but a boot sent her into sleep before they could swarm her too and he barked an order. "Fan out, into the base. Hunt down anyone armed and deal with them. If they aren't armed, tie them up and leave them for Jau- The Overlord."
He wasn't entirely sure they understood, but at the mention of Jaune, they crowed their typical, narrow minded cheer and took off in random directions down the halls that split off from the entry door. Three hallways, one forward and two to the sides, opened up in wide, richly decorated and carpeted avenues that were brightly lit by overhead lights built into the walls. It was surprising how wide the halls were, easily able to have ten men his size walking in a row, and they were at least fifteen feet tall to boot.
"This is the headquarters, it would make sense it would be well made." Winter remarked as she joined him, waiting only a moment for him to nod and then turning to head left into the building. "I will follow this way, and clean up behind these little creatures. Do whatever you like."
"Don't worry, Frosty, we will! Have fun getting friendly with the local animals, too!" Roman said, grinning as he joined the blonde, his apparently adopted daughter on his heels with a long and thin blade in her hand.
Not to mention a maniacal grin plastered on her face as the sounds of fighting, and dying, began echoing back towards them. Tai tried his best to ignore both of those things, and instead turned away to head off to the right.
"Clear through the middle, Roman." He waved a hand over his shoulder as he went, sighing tiredly as he reached a door and wrenched it off its hinges. Behind it, a woman had been waiting with an axe and she leapt for him, but he caught her by the wrist and snapped the bone easily. "And remember, Jaune gets the boss himself, so if you find the throne room or whatever, leave it."
Yanking her towards him, he slammed a punch into her forehead hard enough she flipped through the air as she sailed by and clattered in a heap on the ground. A Brown, complaining all the while, fell on her with a blackjack and a rope to truss her up and drag her away as roving bands doing the same came down the hall to practically pile the prisoners up together.
Already, dozens of them were being dragged away. But he put that out of mind as he hurled the door he'd broken off away and stepped into the little workshop. Disassembled weapons, armor, and more were arrayed over a half-dozen workbenches lining the far wall of the long room. And throughout, Minions were scrapping with Grunts armed with whatever they could find, leaping to try and tug them down or just prodding at them with short spears to corral them into corners or nooks between workbenches.
One of the soldiers turned and leapt at him with a hammer in his hands, like a blacksmith gone mad, and Tai sighed. A boot slammed down into a stool and flipped it into the air and then he batted it towards the man. The wood shattered over his head and he went limp, clattering across the ground behind him just inside the door.
"Anyone that doesn't want to die, throw down your weapons and surrender!" He ordered loudly, the Minions turning to him with confused eyes while the Fang considered his words. Tiny heads turned this way and that, ears flopping and eyes blinking in confusion, and Tai groaned audibly. "You idiots… I'm talking to the Fang here! Give up and you'll live."
And be turned over to Atlas, he didn't add, knowing how well that would go if he mentioned it. Most of them actually took his invitation, though several bellowed about 'cowards' and leapt at the Minions. Only to face a couple dozen undistracted and ready Minions, rather than the few they'd had to each of themselves, which only ever was going to go one way really.
He waited for the rest to be hauled down and trussed up before moving out into the hallway and on to the next room, while Minions dragged the unconscious and bleeding away. Those conscious fought and spit until Tai heard a heavy wooden crunch and turned to look up at a massive spider laden with a quartet of Blues and a singular Brown controlling the beast lumbering overhead.
"Anyone that fights gets eaten by the spider!" Ironwood, waiting by the door with a grim look on his face, called out. "On the authority of Atlas, you will be promised protection from the Minions of the Overlord if you surrender. If you continue resisting, however, I can do nothing for you."
Where Neo and Roman were, Tai couldn't hazard a guess, but very suddenly the hissing and kicking stopped and the Faunus began to cooperate. Giant effing spiders had that effect, it seemed.
XxX-XxX-XxX
"They've set up a gun battery up the hall. Semi-circle made of furniture and sandbags, with three gun emplacements." Winter explained half an hour later when Jaune arrived, the woman leaning against a wall. "Take a look if you want, but keep your head down. You've lost two dozen Minions rushing up these halls like lunatics already."
"Yeah they… Tend to do that." Around a sharp turn, the wooden walls, statues, lights and carpet had been torn up in huge chunks. Minion limbs, weapons, armor and assorted chunks decorated the floor too, as evidence of the Schnee soldier's words, and he frowned at them. Behind him, a spider and around thirty assorted Minions loitered, waiting for a command, and he sighed. "What to do about this then… Winter?"
"My Summons get cut apart, and if I had any other ideas I would already be through." She answered shortly, looking a it dirty but mainly frustrated. And, he dared say, kind of bored, kneeling in cover with a detached sort of expression he couldn't place.
"Summons?" He asked, kneeling beside her and prodding her for information. When she gave him a look, he grunted, "Explain while I think, please. I have a rough idea but... Do you have something that could get my axe behind them?"
"Why?"
"I can teleport to it." He grunted, holding the black and silver weapon meaningfully. She gave it a look and he added, "If we get it over there, then I can-"
"I have a plan, if you don't mind taking orders." He shrugged simply and shook his head and she smiled in response. Then she stood and held her saber in front of her, like knights in video games who would kiss their blade before heading into battle, and she smiled grimly. "Step out into the open and throw it, then."
"But what about the-"
"Trust me, please, and we can end this now." He was loathe to do that so easily but he nodded and stood, turning the weapon in his hand so the head rested against the floor. At his nod that he was ready, she barked a simple, "Now."
With a long stride, he stepped into the open and looked down the long hallway, gauging the distance for his throw on a glance like he always did. It was at least a dozen yards out and he grimaced at the range, knowing that such a distance would only really matter to his throw. Not the heavy, tri-barreled cannon a duo of heavyset Fang soldiers were manning, turning the weapon around and towards him. It began to spin and he gave Winter an anxious look, the woman's eyes closed and face set in a mask of strained effort that would have been comical in any other situation.
Sadly, a heavy machine gun whirring to life with a line drawn somewhere on his chest was a bit of a mood killer.
He saw a flash of light as the heavy gun opened fire and flinched, but the rounds were ripped up into the air suddenly only a few feet from the gun. Riflemen opened fire, some aiming up at the swirling black glyph and ripping chunks out of it while more fired towards him. The rounds from the latter were ripped up alongside the heavy gun's shots and he gave the woman a surprised look.
"Throw it." She ordered loudly, sweat beading on her forehead and eyes pinching shut from the effort to focus.
"Got it." And he'd be making a note of this ability and asking Weiss about it later, definitely. Having her able to do such things opened up a world of ideas for him, but for now he turned his focus to the matters to hand.
Lumbering forward, he cocked arm back and bellowed over the din, "Minions, forward!"
The creatures charged on his command, and the spider with them, its massive legs lumbering as it lifte dover him and moved forward. The glowing black glyph flickered weakly for a half-second, only long enough for a few bursts of rifle fire and a couple dozen machinegun rounds to get by but more than enough to show him why she hadn't tried this before. Just that momentary lapse had rounds ripping into his Minions, sending an entire row sprawling dead or wounded.
A second's lapse, and ten of his soldiers were dead or dying.
Taking aim, he hurled the axe so hard he felt his shoulder twang in pain at the effort, and nearly fell from off-balancing himself so greatly. The weapon sailed high through the air towards the ornate door behind the stacked chairs, tables and assorted detritus they'd assembled. But as he'd known when he did it, the magically enchanted weapon only crossed two thirds of the distance before axe began to dip. Far ahead of the barricade, no less.
But then it shot up, pulled higher by the glyph, and he realized the gambit. The weapon punched into the barricade then and he brought his Gauntlet to his chest, the familiar addictive twang of Mana on his tongue and heady in his mind. It crackled around him and, very suddenly, the sounds of gunfire were a roar from just beside him as his fingers felt the haft of his axe in them again.
"Son of a Grimm-" His Gauntlet snapped out, wrenching the heavy gun up and then hurling it away with a Mana Burst. The blast sent the two men manning it reeling, wrent the gun into pieces, and blasted a man-sized hole in the barricade that he used to get by it.
"Bastard!" He turned his back on the rifle-wielding man and let his cloak absorb the rounds he emptied out of his gun's magazine and sent Mana flicking along his axe. Turning, he belched fire that burned hot enough to roast meat black and the Faunus cried out as his fine red clothes caught.
One of the gunners from the cannon he'd destroyed slammed into his side and buried a short knife in his collar, but the leather padding there kept it from doing more than bruising him. With a harsh bark of a laugh, he backhanded the Faunus hard enough that porcelain, blood and teeth flew to the side and the man staggered away. Then, without a care in the world beyond his wide smile, his axe came around in a whistle and lopped his head free. The other man from the gun-team saw the head roll and panicked, shielding himself with his hands, but his axe cleaved as easily through the thick limbs as they did his torso beyond.
"Ha! You all thought you would get away with what you did to Emilia?" He bellowed as a red-clothed, chainmail wearing guard rushed him with an ornate halberd. "This is justice for her, you animals!"
He batted the weapon aside easily with a burst of his swirling Mana-Shield and, while the Faunus was staggering by in surprise, buried his Gauntlet's claws in the warrior's throat. With a laugh, he ripped it free and leveled the bloodied claws at the other defenders as they turned to look at him. Beside him, from the way he'd come, the giant spider's legs sent splintered wood flying as it and his Minions reached them and he grinned.
"Surrender?" He offered mockingly, the Faunus roaring cheers of 'Sienna!' and 'For the White Fang' in answer as they rounded on him, abandoning their former positions for a chance at a more glorious death. "Can't say I didn't five you idiots a chance then."
Fanatics… But it meant more fun for him, he supposed, grinning and ordering, "Minions, slaughter them all. No mercy."
His Minions washed over them in a brown tide, and his spider joined them, lumbering over the flurry of Minions and skewering one of the better melee fighters who had been holding them off on one of its long, metal armored leg tips. He saw it flick the man away but didn't stay to watch any more of the festivities, instead slamming a heavy boot up and into the ornate gate. It buckled but held and he rolled his eyes, making a spearpoint of his clawed fingers and punching through the thick wood like so much butter.
With a muted 'pop' of Mana and a far louder crunch of wood and steel being torn apart, the gates shot open.
"Hold, soldiers of the White Fang!" He heard a woman's voice shout as he stepped into the long, high throne room.
A semi-circle of halberd-wielding soldiers garbed in the red he'd seen on commanders earlier stood waiting for him. Unlike those, though, these had cloaks hemmed in gold and laurels hanging off their shoulders. Honor guard, he decided, looking past the unimportant peons and up at the throne itself a few yards away.
"I take it you're the leader here?" He asked haughtily, letting the pointed end of his bloodied axe bite into the carpet and cocking his head to the side. She didn't answer, watching him instead to see what he would do, and he snorted and sighed and sighing theatrically. Pointing a finger at himself, he grunted, "Me Overlord. Who you, Woman?"
"Do you think that I'm some under-developed animal?" She hissed, her right hand lashing out and a long ship whistling as the bladed tip soared to her side. A show of force, he could tell, but one that was as much geared towards readying herself for a fight as scaring him. "I am Sienna Khan, supreme leader of the White Fang."
"So you are the leader!"
"Yes, and you are an Atlesian dog." She growled, striding down the steps in long, sure strides. Theatrics, he it recognized instantly. A show she was putting on to try and unnerve him and harden the nerves of her soldiers in one fell swoop. "So what, did your masters pay you nicely to sack us? Make it look like bandits, I imagine. Or have you been their chained dog for some time, and they finally let you off the-"
"Nope!" He popped the 'p' sound, channeling his inner Ruby and smiling when she blinked in surprise. Putting on an air of confusion, like he was thinking it through for her only just now, he asked, "Did you assume that from the General being here helping me?"
"Well… Yes."
"Ah, see, that's your mistake right there." He snapped his fingers in a 'gotcha' gesture and laughed, loud and mocking. The woman bristled at the tone like he'd intended, and behind him the sounds of fighting began to die and he sensed his Minions beginning to gather at the open door's precipice. An intimidating sight, no doubt, with or without the Hunters whose presence he couldn't sense in the same way. "You assumed that the General being here meant that, whoever was here too, they would work for him. But in reality, he's not here because I work for him. It's the opposite, in fact."
"I'm here as a favor to the Overlord, not as an Atlesian military official." The General informed them all, Jaune turning to look over his shoulder at the man standing in the doorway with his hands clasped behind his back. "You made enemies you couldn't match up to, Sienna Khan."
Behind him, Winter did the same, while Tai and Ozpin both loitered further back and away from the whole thing. Roman and Neo were probably elsewhere, he assumed, either hounding out the last Faunus hiding away or looting the place. He didn't mind either way, not really at least, even if having them in the line would sail the point so much firmer.
But the trio of giant, armored spiders seemed to send the message on who precisely she had pissed off.
"Atlas is only here to take your survivors somewhere other than the cliffs out over the ocean." Jaune laughed, the sound even harsh and mocking to his own ears. He couldn't help it, though.
He could see the panic and fear in the bodies of the guards, even their discipline and courage faltering in the face of a horde of monsters and giant spiders hissing and chittering at them. And it was intoxicating in the messed up way he was used to.
So, he forced that to the side and asked brightly. "Any chance you might want to surrender? I promise, I'll only execute Sienna herself. The rest of you will be handed over to Atlas for… Whatever they have planned for you!"
"White Fang, attack! For the Revolution!" Sienna answered, sweeping her hand forward and beckoning her men and women into the fight as he'd expected.
The soldiers answered in kind, roaring and lunging in, and Jaune grinned. With a wave of his hand, his Minions began to surge forward and he moved ahead of them. One halberd thrust for his face and he stepped to the side, letting it clang off his off shoulder and thrusting up with the pointed tip of his own weapon. Hemmed in on both sides by his fellows and unable to step far enough back, the man cried out before the hardened tip crunched through his mask and skull and Jaune shoved him back.
Another swept her weapon down and up, but he caught that in his hand and yanked her forwards, into his guard. Releasing her weapon he punched up, and his claws ripped through her throat like a hot knife through butter. A third came in from the side and scored a hard strike across his armored flank, hard enough he grunted and staggered under the blow.
But the Faunus never got the chance to capitalize on the mild opening. As poor as that would have gone, admittedly. Instead, a massive pike punched down into their chest and they staggered back. As their red and white clothing darkened, the pike's head was pulled free. And a massive spider leg, capped in iron, punched down and crushed them under its weight.
To either side of him, his Minions were swarming the guards, and he spotted a mop of blonde somewhere far away in the mass. Tai, no doubt, trying to save a couple of the fanatics by getting involved himself. Jaune shrugged at the knowledge and turned when another Faunus bowled through his Minions where they were somewhat thinner, halberd held to the side to swing like a bat and the man roaring.
Fire belched from his axe when he leveled it and the man reeled, screamed, and collapsed under his own weight. As a mercy, he made sure the fire was so hot as to burn white at the last moment, so the man's nerves would fry and he'd pass out before he died. A small mercy, but one he offered regardless.
"So, Sienna was it?" He smiled as he passed by the collapsing line of Faunus, the woman backing away warily with an eye on his axe. Spinning the weapon in his hand, he laughed and asked, "Are you ready for this? Because I'm ready for this."
"Are you challenging me to a duel?" He nodded simply and she barked a laugh. "And why should I entertain that instead of withdrawing to fight another day?"
"Because I would flay the survivors of your little headquarters here alive." He shrugged simply, gesturing at the monsters behind him and, beyond, at the base at large. Full of at least a couple hundred prisoners, which he was certain she would anticipate. "And I would make it known very publicly that it was all for your cowardice."
"Monster! I don't mind killing you if you want it so damn badly!" She seethed, spinning on her heel and lashing out with the bladed chain. "Enjoy your duel, you demon!"
It whistled over his shoulder and he hunched low, diving in with his axe held in two hands. With a jerk and a twist of her shoulders, the chain snapped to the side and down suddenly, as though it were alive, the bladed tip tipping hard enough into his helmet he was knocked to the side. When she tanked it back, he felt his helmet tug with it and saw the tiniest pinprick of light just over his eye.
"Hardened Seer-Steel, infused with Dust." The woman smiled, wrapping the chain around her arm and bringing her leg back. "Next to nothing can handle my chains in a straight fight. Your armor is no exception."
"Shut up and fight." He snapped, already forming an idea of what to do about her and her chain whip.
She obliged him happily, swinging the bladed whip wide and around, lashing it out at him over and over again. He let it force him back, ducking and weaving side to side when she lunged in towards his face and throat, aiming for the thinner mail and leather she could no doubt spot there. Or that she just anticipated being there so he could turn his head. Whatever the reason, he was forced back, and she grinned at the fact.
Until a spider's great leg came down and her whip wrapped around it, that was.
"You bast- Agh!" She cried out as she was wrenched forward, the chain still wrapped around her arm betraying her now. She couldn't release the weapon and, under the massive spider's far greater strength, she couldn't hold her ground either. His axe easily cut through the link when she was close enough, and his Gauntlet lashed out to grab her by the throat before she could leap away, pulling her close. "B-But, you wanted a duel! Coward!"
"Your mistake was thinking I ever wanted a straight fight. And I never really said I wanted to duel you." He smiled behind his mask and leaned close to peer into her face, her wide eyes reflecting the yellow glow of his own. "I just wanted to make sure you didn't run. I don't know the area, after all, so you might have escaped my… Grasp."
"You monster- Ack!" Her words were cut off as his Gauntlet squeezed around her throat, her claws digging into his armored hand uselessly while he laughed.
"A Huntress' Aura can block blades, fire, even electricity to a very small extent. You can stun through the last, with enough of it... But you know what it can't stop?" She could only gag and choke in answer, kicking at his armored chest weakly while her face reddened and her nose flared. "Easy answer, since you asked so nicely! It can't really stop crushing pressure."
Finally, he heard a muted, moist crack sound and her eyes widened in the sudden realization of her demise. Her hands went limp and fell away, then, and she stilled, hanging in his grip. That realization on her face now a mask, he let her droop to the floor and, for insurance, kicked her over onto her back and brought his axe across her neck.
Her head rolled away and a Minion picked it up, turning and running off with it and his spear to, he imagined, prop it up outside. Not why he'd lopped it off, but…
That was as sure a way to end all this as any. And, finally, it was all over and he could look for what to do next.
Maybe a nice dinner date in Vale with Ruby was in order? He'd not actually gone out with her since the incident with Papa Goat had happened. And it seemed a good way to mark the changing times.
XxX-XxX-XxX
I didn't want to dwell on the individual 'waves' of the attack, as it were, because then this entire ordeal would end up taking four or five chapters to get through. So, like, two months for the finale to this first overarching arc of Overlord. Sorry if that aspect seems disappointing to anyone, but didn't want to bloat it out over two months of posting.
Tried to make up for it in the end, though~! The fight with Sienna was fast, admittedly, but given everything it seemed out of character for Jaune to want some long, drawn out, honorable duel with her. Why would he, really? He wanted revenge, and her dead, not some honorable duel for his honor or whatever.
Hope you enjoyed it regardless~!
~ Twisted
XxX-XxX-XxX
Akuma-Heika :
I was also thinking about equipment. Like, Nora packs grenades, and Ruby has a huge scythe. The differential wouldn't be a lot, but I mean, racers in real life will shave a few ounces off their cars at every opportunity for the tiny bit of speed.
Zen-Aku :
Yep! Fixed it.
Razmire :
I mean, yeah. Momma Yang and Papa Tai are always gonna be influential on Ruby being with him, and he's kinda attached at this point.